“They just make me so happy, like no other animal can,” said Rochenski, 49. “People ask me, ‘Why not a dog or a cat?’ I just love rats.”

Okaaayyy.

Anyway, it’s not just her. In fact, there may be “hundreds” of rat owners (purposeful rat owners, that is) within the five boroughs — and each of them mentioned in the Daily News story were women, which makes us wonder. Is this a very special incarnation of the Plight of the Single Lady? Is the rat the new cat?

Rats can grow to be a foot long, and if they weren’t adopted as housepets they’d probably be undergoing tests in labs, serving as snake food, or scurrying around the streets and garbage cans and combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bells in our fair city. They’re also quite “sweet,” apparently.

We’ll take the rat lovers’ word for it. As they say, there’s someone for everyone. Or some things.